Merely Human

Chapter 24

Living with Caden was easier than I had expected given our tumultuous start. I had been nervous at first since I relied on him for a lot of things, but he did it all without any complaint. Even when he helped me get in and out of the shower, he didn't say anything about my being naked and respectfully kept his eyes on my face as much as possible. He had offered to take Trish's now empty room, but I had thought that was silly since there was no bed and mine was big enough for both of us. It ended up being a good idea, because sometimes I needed his help getting to the bathroom at night.

For the most part, though, I had gotten used to pulling myself into my wheelchair on my own and began to gain some control over my life the more I grew accustomed to it. After a week passed, living together felt natural. My friends and his old housemates/pack members still dropped by nearly every day and at some point it became normal for everyone to hang out in the main room together. There was still the odd joke cracked by either Isaac, Jason, or one of the pack members about "vampires" vs "werewolves", but it was more good natured and didn't have any real meanness behind it.

It was a good thing everything was going well on that end because the anxiety from the upcoming meeting was pressing down on all of us. Caden assured me that Tobias had nothing to worry about, but I wasn't completely used to their archaic battle to the death style of justice and it still felt quite surreal to me. I tried to put it from my mind as much as possible, but even with physical therapy tiring me out almost every day I was still unable to ignore it.

The day of the meeting came too soon for my liking, and before I knew it Caden and I were driving to the werewolf-only city that he had lived in his whole life. I don't know what I expected, but there wasn't any magical moment as we crossed the border that alerted me that the beings living here weren't human. There were still children out with their parents walking around, couples hand in hand coming out of shops, we even passed a Trader Joe's. Everything looked monotonously human, although I supposed they couldn't really all be running around as wolves in case a human passed through.

"Where do you typically hold the meetings?" I asked Caden as we drove through what appeared to be the downtown area.

"Town Hall is just past this park, we always hold them there."

"Is the alpha also technically the mayor or whatever political figure you guys "officially" have?"

"Used to be." He nodded. "These days it's a little different. A lot of us leave home after graduating high school to get degrees, just like any human would, and then come back to help contribute to the packs' livelihood. It's not really any different for those of us higher up in the pack, but since Hartwood Steel is the main source of economic growth in Hartwood, the Alpha has always taken over the business. It used to be that they also were the Mayor, if you want to call it that, but in recent years the Beta has sometimes taken on that role as kind of a figurehead. Everyone around here knows the Alpha is in charge, but he acts as the second in command and assists in other aspects of managing the town."

I hummed in response, thinking through his words as he turned at the corner of the park, a large government looking building nestled in between the trees across the street. When he took the final turn into the parking lot, it became much more clear why they had insisted Tobias drive separately. The place was crowded with men and women, some standing around at the entrance of the building but most shuffling inside. It slightly resembled a church gathering, except for the most part everyone was dressed casually.

Most of the college pack members had driven up earlier, but Ben and Sara were following us in a separate car. Tobias planned on arriving after everyone was already in the meeting. He had an official signed letter from Caden that would let him past the borders, but this way it would be too late for anyone to tip off their father that something else was going on. Caden parked in a spot with a sign that said "reserved for the Hartwood family" and I did a little double take at that, I had never realized that the town was named after him. Ben parked in the spot next to it with an identical sign and I noticed there were two others that also had the same reservations: one was empty while the other held a nice looking black car.